Devlog 16 - New Stuff?

[p]Its time for another bi-monthly devlog!![/p][p]Reception on the new shorter devlog style for the last one was good so ill try to keep the yap as little as possible, especially since lots of stuff happened in the time since the last devlog. [/p][p]Mik became FOUR years old, it hit 10,000 wishlists (18,000 now THANK YOU), but the most important one is the:[/p][p][/p]

Demo release!

[p]In total there were 5,887 unique players which averages out to ~110 per day! I think sentiment on the demo was pretty good but theres still a lot of work to be done to properly finish & improve it for the final release. Im really grateful for all the support and attention the game got[/p][p][/p][p]While Update 0.3.5 should come soon I am focusing on working on new Content for the game for a final release, but the road there is still long. Im thinking about a 2026 release (JUST SPECULATION)[/p][p][/p]

New Environments

[p]I talked a bit more extensively about it on this patreon post if youre interested[/p][h2]"The Flip"[/h2][p]The FIRST new area im showing (the name is just a placeholder). [/p][p]Ive also figured out how to properly add clouds that dont suck (for the most part) which really drive home how far up this place is - and how large the "room" is.[/p][p][/p][p]This area runs surprisingly well (for now) as I did the oldest gamedev trick ever to reduce poly count: LODs. Or rather the distant buildings are simply a super simplified version which i procedurally placed with Geometry Nodes in Blender.[/p][p][/p][h2]"The Bottom"[/h2][p]The names are getting more creative...[/p][p][/p][p]This place has the new clouds as well, and is very inspired by the game "Metal Garden". I really liked the concept of seeing the roof of the giant room youre in but it was a challenge to convey the scale and size correctly.[/p][h2][/h2][p][/p][h2]New Areas For Demo:[/h2][p]The last devlog was before the actual demo release, so ill just put the new areas i didnt cover last time here:[/p][p][/p][p]Containers rework (more RED) [/p][p]Im aware that it has some issues with not knowing in what direction to go so im working on fixing that somehow..[/p][h2][/h2][p]BIG secret (very hard to find): [/p][p][/p][p]Reworked an older secret (decently hard to find but i made it a bit easier):[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

Polish, Performance and Everything Else

[h2]New Interactions (?) [/h2][p]You will be able to drink out of NASTY (and get drunk) as well as smoke[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2](not) an Aerial Faith Plate[/h2][p]modelling pistons is surprisingly hard (or im just bad)[/p][p][/p][p]Its a launchpad which can launch you and other objects in the air. Idk why i didnt think of adding this sooner since its a no brainer for a platformer but i do hope to differentiate it from portal 2 with gameplay a bit.[/p][p]I cant upload videos here so join the discord to watch a showcase (it has cool dynamic music)[/p][p][/p][h2]Polish[/h2][p][/p][h3]Better Leaves[/h3][p]Barely noticeable but they are not as GREEN anymore and seem to be infected/decaying/alien or whatever you want to interpret into it[/p][p][/p][h3]Better Controller Behaviour[/h3][p]Especially for menus.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]..and tons of other improvements and changes driven through all the kind people who gave feedback and reported bugs![/p][p][/p][h2]Performance[/h2][p]In every update the demo has received there was some kind of performance improvement, and with all the previous stuff id say its in a pretty good place. Im still planning on improving the "outside" areas so it can hit more than just 60fps on steamdeck (with decent settings). Here is a rundown on some of the performance improvements:[/p]

[p]Shaders now preload[/p]
[p]Major stutter reductions during gameplay[/p]
[p]Build size reduced from 7GB -> 5GB (also lowering memory usage)[/p]
[p]Lighting optimisation across multiple scenes[/p]
[p]And obviously the fixing of the major performance bugs in some of the scenes[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Bugs[/h2][p]I wont even bother compiling them cus nobody cares but there were a LOT[/p][p][/p][h2]Localisation[/h2][p]With the help of all the translators (thank you!!) im nearly ready to get some test builds out in new Languages, mainly meant for "Playtesting" and getting some general feedback. For the full game release im hoping there to be a few languages finished and properly implemented.[/p][p]Theres also new systems in place like a central Language Manager (instead of my previous sloppy code), new Fonts for different writing systems (only Cyrillic for now) and Text automatically rescaling itself if the text would overflow (due to translations sometimes being longer).[/p][p][/p][p]If youre interested in helping with translations (or organising would be a big help as well) you can apply here: https://forms.gle/YkeYGxJatGV9XQBv7[/p][p][/p]

Other Stuff

[p]Something i forgot to mention in the last devlog is the re-release of the precursor to Mik: Mik Legacy[/p][p]Its basically one of the older versions of Mik that got scrapped, but for the full story read this post [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]Anyways thank you for reading, playing and all the support[/p][p]-Stefaaan!![/p]